Village Squire, 1980-08, Page 43PEOPLE
Young artist
is self taught
Art education is new to Seaforth District
High School and still in its growing stages.
Three years ago, levels one and two art
classes became available to students for
the first time. Last year, a level three class
lasted until half the class dropped out, or
rather one of the two students attending
dropped out, resulting in the class being
cancelled.
For 16 -year-old Pam Carnochan (half
the class that remained), no high school art
class meant looking to alternatives to
continue development of a growing art
interest.
Her first step was the Ontario Board of
Education's Correspondence Courses,
where Pam continued level three art
instruction through the mail. She said,
however, she soon found correspondence
courses too time consuming, causing her
regular school work to fall behind. The only
remaining alternatives would be expensive
private lessons or simply developing the
art base she had already learned in her
high school classes on her own - she chose
the latter.
"I would like to have kept up the
correspondence course, but I like working
on my own," she said.
Although working on her own has meant
less critical evaluation by teachers, the
young artist has not gone without recog-
nition.
This summer, for the second year in a
row, Pam will be exhibiting watercolor
paintings at the Blyth Centre for the Arts.
Last year, with two watercolors on display,
Pam made her first sale.
"Last year I had no intentions of selling
any paintings because I had no idea how to
price them. But, this woman from London
wrote and asked if I would please sell one,
so I did."
This year exhibiting three of her
watercolors, Pam has already sold one,
although they have only been in the new
gallery at Blyth's Memorial Hall for a
week.
WATERCOLORS
Working with watercolors is what Pam
enjoys most, using soft pastel shades to
paint mostly landscapes and farm scenes.
"It's quick; I like the way you can blend
and mix the colors," she said.
Spending an average of three to four
hours a week on her art work, Pam can
often be found parked on a lonely country
road sitting on the hood of her burgundy
Honda sketching the scenic Huron Country
countryside.
"I like to sketch and paint reality," she
said, adding that up to now she has been
doing a lot of farm scenes, something she
hopes to get away from in the future.
LEARNING PROCESS
Pam describes art as a continual learning
process.
"I experiment," she said. "I try things
differently. Half of the time it doesn't work
out, but I (earn."
And learn is what Pam hopes to do in the
future. This winter, she talks of taking
evening art classes through the Clinton
campus of Conestoga College and after
high school, she hopes to combine her two
biggest interests, art and natural resources
work.
For now, however, Pam continues to
sketch, experiment, paint and learn
through trial and error.
"I think you have to learn the basic skills
and just apply them," she said. "After that
you can do anything."
BRUCE FOLK SINGERS
Although the Bruce County Folk Singers
insist they only play music to keep their
fingers in shape, the five -member group of
Teeswater musicians is rated number
one.
Awarded a total of three firsts in the
All -Ontario Junior Farmer Folk Singing
Competition, the versatile musicians play a
well rounded selection including familiar
hits by John Denver, the Irish Rovers and
Gordon Lightfoot, to old-time fiddling,
bluegrass and gospel tunes.
The band consists of Byron Ballagh, who
plays the four -string banjo, mandolin and
12 -string guitar, his brother Gary who
plays the guitar and auto harp, Ben
Blackwell who plays everything from
six -string guitar to washboard, Ken Wall
who sings and plays the bass and six -string
guitar and Frank Leahya grade 10 classical
violinist.
Performing regularly at area reunions,
fairs, festivals and concerts, The Bruce
County Folk Singers play only on a part-
time bases.
Byron and Gary work together with their
father as partners in a farming operation,
Ben is a plumber, Ken plays in a
commercial band called Drumlin and Frank
is considering studying Kinesiology at the
university of Guelph.
However, no matter what occupation the
band members practice , when they pick
up their instruments music appears to be
their number one interest.
GODERICH PRINTS
One of the features of the Fesitval of
Arts in Goderich this year was the art of
Michael Scott, a teacher at Robertson
School in Goderich.
Mr. Scott prepared a series of five
limited edition ink drawings reflecting the
past of the Huron Tract and the Port of
Goderich.
He prepared the five prints over the
winter and had them copied one at a time
on an offset lithographic press. Fifty prints
of each were kept and numbered.
Included with each print is an
information sheet concerning the subject of
the work.
The prints are of the MacEwan Salt
Works in the 1880s, the Goderich
Lighthouse, 1847, the Goderich Harbor,
1866, the CPR Station, 1907, and a Huron
Tract collage.
This was the second year Mr. Scott and
his wife Susan had a display at the
Festival.
•Light Fixtures
•Light accessories
& shades
•Table lamps
•Door chimes
•Hood fans
Custom Lighting
JATON
LIGHTING
(E. of Albert Street, Clinton)
Mon. -Sat. 9:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Closed Weanesdays
15 Rattenbury St. E.
482-7919
VILLAGE SQUIRE/AUGUST 1908 PG. 37